This 1913 tragicomedy of manners novel by Edith Wharton, her second full-length work, tells the story of Undine Spragg, a Midwestern girl who attempts to ascend in New York City society.
Considered by many to be Wharton's masterpiece (sorry, The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth) is a scathing yet personal examination of the exploits and follies of the modern upper class. As she unfolds the story of Undine Spragg, from New York to Europe, Wharton affords us a detailed glimpse of what might be called the interior décor of this America and its nouveau-riche fringes. Through a heroine who is as vain, spoiled, and selfish as she is irresistibly fascinating, and through a most intricate and satisfying plot that follows Undine’s marriages and affairs, she conveys a vision of social behavior that is both supremely informed and supremely disenchanted.
Julian Fellowes has cited The Custom of the Country as an inspiration for his creative work, including Downton Abbey. Upon receiving the Edith Wharton Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts, Fellowes said: "It is quite true that I felt this was my book; that the novel was talking to me in a most extreme and immediate way. I think it's a remarkable piece of writing. In Undine Spragg, Wharton has created an anti-heroine absolutely in the same rank as Becky Sharp, Scarlett, O'Hara, or Lizzie Eustace. Undine has no values except ambition, greed and desire, and yet through the miracle of Wharton's writing, you are on her side. That's what's so extraordinary about the book...I decided, largely because of her work, that it was time I wrote something."
In 2020 the American filmmaker Sofia Coppola announced she planned to develop a miniseries adaptation of the work; however, in January 2024 Coppola confirmed that AppleTV+ had pulled funding from the project, saying that executives there seemed not to understand the female protagonist, calling her “unlikeable.”
